On this week’s cover, the Army is looking into shaking things up in Korea. Rather than individual soldiers deploying for a year at a time, a new plan would send complete combat units for nine-month tours. Leaders say this system would improve readiness by keeping trained units together, instead of breaking them up to send a single soldier to Korea. Also on the cover, the Army admits that many war records from the Global War on Terror have been misplaced. The statement comes following a ProPublica and Seattle Times report alleging that thousands of battlefield assessments and other records from…

Almost eight years ago, Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, from the New York National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division, were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in a window of their room at their headquarters in Tikrit, Iraq. One of their soldiers, Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, was charged and tried on murder charges. He was acquitted in December 2008 in the two officers’ June 7, 2005, deaths. Since then, Barbara Allen, Louis Allen’s wife, has fought, unsuccessfully, for her husband’s death certificate to be changed to reflect a hostile death, which would qualify him for a Purple Heart.…

The U.S. has already check-mated and removed Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but they are still in play as part of a Canadian toy company’s war-themed chess set. The company, Hegwig & Sergeant Major, offers Taliban, Iraqi, Canadian, British and American pieces. The chess sets go for $250 a pop. George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Hussein and bin Laden are kings. The World Trade Center is a rook, a bomb-vest wearing Taliban suicide bomber is a knight, American soldiers and Mahdi Army soldiers are pawns. There are informative descriptions of pieces, like the Taliban rook, a bearded dude wielding…

BAGHDAD — Sgt. 1st Class Rene Gonzalez spent his last Iraq deployment driving mounted patrols in Humvees outside Kirkuk Air Base. In 2004 and 2005, he spent most days seeking out improvised explosive devices and rooting out insurgents. This deployment, the Idaho Guardsmen is living the high life. He helps oversee operations at the Joint Visitor’s Bureau Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. Based inside of one of Saddam Hussein’s old palaces, the hotel is located across a man-made pond from the Al-Faw Palace where U.S. Forces – Iraq is headquartered.

An Army spokesman giving a press tour around Baghdad said this mural, which stands at Camp Slayer, is one of the only last ones of Saddam Hussein throughout Iraq. The rest of the self aggrandizing portraits of the former dictator have been destroyed or vandalized beyond recognition. Somehow I feel there are a couple still up in his former hometown of Tikrit, but we’ll take the sergeant’s word for it.

BAGHDAD — Photographer Chris Maddaloni and I arrived in Iraq this week. We’ll be spending the next three weeks traveling around the country trying to get a sense of how the mission has changed and how Iraq will look once U.S. troops leave in December. Our agenda will include stops with the 148th Field Artillery Regiment in Baghdad, the 4th Infantry Division in Mosul, the 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command in Balad, and the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Kut. If you are deployed to Iraq now and see us, say hi. We’ve spent the first few days with Idaho National…

Jim Michaels of USA TODAY is reporting that violent incidents in Iraq dropped from 11,203 in 2009 to 8,233 in 2010. U.S. military commanders there, who provided the statistics, said this demonstrates the ability of Iraq’s forces to maintain security in the country. This is the lowest level of violence since the widespread insurgency that followed the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The peak of violence was 2007 when there were 67,727 incidents, according to the report. The statistics include attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces as well as bombs discovered before they were detonated.

The Pentagon says the defense budget must grow roughly 3 percent above inflation each year to sustain the military at current levels. As a result of the nation’s fiscal fallout, military spending will grow only 1.8 percent in 2012, and 1 percent in following years. That means the Pentagon must cut tens of billions from its budget to make up the difference. How will this happen? Let’s first consider Iraq, where there are some interesting numbers floating around as that nation beefs up its military in the wake of U.S. troops departing.